Calif. Sailor Rescued Off Chile

January 06, 2007|By Los Angeles Times

PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE — His ketch went adrift after being damaged on a solo sail by a storm.

As the Chilean fishing trawler began a 500-mile trip to port with rescued Newport Beach, Calif., sailor Ken Barnes aboard, details emerged about his harrowing three days alone near Cape Horn on his disabled 44-foot ketch.

"It was wild inside the boat," said Barnes from the Polar Pesca I, the fishing boat that rescued him early Friday. "From the moment I decided to take the trip, I took a risk." Barnes said the Privateer, his dream boat that he spent nearly $250,000 on, had to be scuttled.

Pictures taken from a military aircraft just before the rescue at 6:48 a.m. local time showed Barnes wearing yellow foul-weather gear and waving at rescuers from the helm of his boat.

Two broken masts lay in front of him, with torn sails hanging over the bow. Four rescuers in an inflatable Zodiac launched from the trawler pulled alongside the Privateer and helped the 47-year-old Barnes on board. They returned to the fishing boat, where crew members brought the shivering Barnes aboard.

"The first thing he said is that he was so grateful for the rescue," Valenzuela said.

Barnes, who left Long Beach Harbor, Calif., in October, was attempting a solo, nonstop voyage around the world -- which he believed would be a first by a West Coast sailor.

On Tuesday, a storm with winds of 108 knots and 45-foot waves snapped the Privateer's masts and sent chilly ocean water into the boat's cabin and engine, destroying the electrical and steering systems.

"The climate was very, very bad, some of the worst we've ever seen," Valenzuela said. Barnes "encountered the perfect storm. That's the only problem he had." For the next three days, news reports and Web sites relayed updates in the rescue, including satellite phone calls from Barnes and Internet postings from Donna Lange, another solo sailor who was 150 nautical miles from the Privateer. She steered her 28-foot sailboat to try to reach Barnes, but she was thwarted by wind and waves. Other would-be rescuers experienced similar problems, including a 570-foot cargo ship and a Chilean naval vessel.

By early Friday, the waters had calmed and the air temperature was 46 degrees, giving near-perfect conditions for the rescue.

After boarding the Polar Pesca I, two paramedics bandaged a wounded leg that Barnes said had been cut to the bone and administered intravenous antibiotics as the sailor cried with relief.

A consular officer from the U.S. Embassy in Chile is scheduled to meet Barnes in Punta Arenas on Sunday and accompany him 3,000 miles north to Santiago, the capital.

Barnes called his family in California early Friday from the trawler, saying, "I love you. ... I'm OK and everything's OK." *